Topics cover contemporary and historical issues in architectural design theory and criticism. For current offerings, see department website.

This seminar will explore the urban design of Jerusalem as a shared space: a sacred site and a national emblem for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. It will rely on the reciprocal relationship between society and space, i.e., how different cultures produce different urban settings. to ask how a city reflects its living societies and examine the tools and tactics different societies employ to shape their living spaces through urban design, architecture, and urban planning. Furthermore, we will ask: What does the shape of a city reveal about space and urban community? How does the urban landscape transmit hidden meanings? Finally, we will ask what happens when society changes, bringing with it its goals and means of design, and explore changes to the urban landscape that occur when cultures change and, with them, values, notions of holiness, and spatial design. Shaped by different cultures over 3000 years, Jerusalem will serve us as a unique laboratory through which we will trace the relationship between culture, architecture, and design as they are reflected on the ground and in various cultural media. A major source for the course will be a newly established database of Jerusalem Architectural Archives, which reveals new collections about the modern development of Jerusalem during the Ottoman, British Mandate, and Israeli periods..

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